Cork sole for boots or shoes



(No Model.)

RVE. FOSTER. OORK SOLE FOR BOOTS OR SHOES.

Patented Mar JAE 35155515;

N. PETERS. PhomLimu m hm. Washington. D (l Unrrn'n STATES "in that Orrrcr.

ROLON E. FOSTER, OF MILFORD, MASSACHUSETTS.

CORK SOLE FOR BOOTS OR SHOES.

QPECIFJIOATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 313,817, dated March 10, 1885.

Application filed December 13, 1884. (No model.)

To aZZ whom, it may concern;

Beitknown that I, RoLoN E. FosrER, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Milford, in the county of \Vorcester and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Cork-Sole Boots and Shoes, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings.

My invention relates to an improvement in boots and shoes; and it consists in the peculiar construction, combination, and arrangement of the parts thereof, substantially as hereinafter fully described.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a longitudinal sectional elevation of a shoe cut into two equal parts. Figs. 2 and 3 are cross sectional views of the sole thereof, in part broken away to show the arrangement of the cork sole.

In the manufacture of my boot or shoe I fit the inner sole and last it in the ordinary way, and fasten on the welt, and then fit a sheet of cork over the entire bottom up to the seam all the way round, the boot or shoe being then ready for the outer sole, which is fastened on as usual-stitched or nailedand the boot or shoe is then completed in the customary manner.

Hitherto in constructing cork-sole boots it has been the custom to use two inner soles and two inner seams, whereas I employ but one of each, and as constructed it may not only be made at a trifling expense over ordinary shoes, but is rendered completely waterproof.

My object has been to produce a boot or shoe for general wear in which the dampness which ordinarily obtains at the heel and shank in cork-sole boots when exposed to wet weather may not only be prevented, but to produce a boot thus rendered also elastic without its weight being increased. In the accomplishment of this purpose I have sought to discover a means of rendering the heel and shank, as well as the fore part, of the boot water-proof, and yet not open to the objections which have hitherto caused that part of the boot to be left unprotected, in the hope that its increased thickness mightserve as a sufficient protection against dampness. As in the construction of the heels of waterproof boots, cork, if interposed betwcen the usual strips of leather forming the heel beneath the sole of the boot, would render the heel liable to become broken or detached when subjected to ordinary usage, in obviating this defect I form the cork sole A into a single strip, whose edges B are tapered to conform to a corresponding bevel or taper, 0, formed on the lower edges of the counter and on the insole. Thus constructed, the cork is removed from the edges where the vamp is fastened to the sole, and projects beneath the O of the counter, the inner sole is supported on a smooth and solid'basis.

The letter a represents a thin strip of rubber, which may be inserted between the beveled edge of the cork and the vamp, thus preventing dampness at that point, and where the cork strip is in contact with the counter it may be projected up over its inner edge and between said edge and the insole.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is- I As an article of manufacture, a boot or shoe having interposed between its inner and outer soles the cork sole A, beveled upon its upper face edge, and adapted to the coincident taper O in the counter, substantially as shown, and

for the purpose described.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

ROLON E. FOSTER.

Witnesses:

PARMENAS I. Pannnonsr, Lnwrs HAYDEN. 

